Huge Pot Club Could Be Coming To Downtown SF

Downtown San Francisco may be about to get a whole lot more chill. It seems a three-story building for sale at 70 Second Street is being advertised as coming with the permits required to run a medical cannabis dispensary. The building's size, and proximity to the Montgomery Street BART Station, combine to set the stage for the creation of what could be one of the largest marijuana clubs in the United States.

Medical cannabis dispensary permits are not for sale (unlike liquor licenses), notes SF Weekly, but it appears that at least one savvy investor has figured out a way around the normally cumbersome permitting process and has pioneered a pathway for obtaining dispensary permits which could play a major factor in any upcoming real estate deal at 70 Second.

"Here's the workaround: Purchase a building with a dispensary," reports the Weekly. "Either evict the dispensary or, for a price (cash under the table) have the dispensary permit transferred to you, the new owner. Then, start selling California's biggest cash crop."

An Oakland real estate developer, Marty Higgins, has successfully pulled off this move on at least one occasion.

In conversation with the Weekly, an agent for the building confirmed that the asking price is roughly double the going rate for similar commercial real estate — a fact which points the idea that any future building owner may be inclined to run a massive dispensary out 70 Second.

With outdoor, all-caps signage reading "AVAILABLE BUILDING WITH MEDICAL CANNABIS DISPENSARY," it seems the fate of the building may be all but certain.